Printing at the Office Depot - Never Again!

A client came to me to design his business card. It was my first time designing a card for client so I did research online for proper rules and dimensions of designing business card. I wanted everything to be perfect so after completing the design and getting approval from the client I went to Office Depot with him to get the cards printed. The lady assisting us told us the specifications for the card then she loaded our design and printed it out to show us how the card will look like.

We believed everything she said because she was dead serious the whole time she was talking to us - no smile for miles around. Anyway my client and I ignored her attitude and looked at the printout. We asked her if this is how the cards will come out and she assured us that's exactly how cards will be printed.

My client decided that he wants raised text. We asked her if only company's logo can be raised. She told us that only the text will be raised and it will be all the text not the design. My client agreed to it so we went ahead and placed the order. We were told to wait for their call, which should come in within 5-6 business days.

Unless they called in two hours I wasn't available during the whole week, I never received any calls from them. On the 7th business days' night I called them to find out cards have been delivered. The next morning I went to pick them up. There was some other lady working there. She gave me the cards and guess what, the cards aren't what was showed to us. The WHOLE design was raised, text and all! And there is white line going through the bottom of all the card. I told the lady that's not what we ordered. She goes 'the other lady has been working with them for 5-6 years (as if I care how long she's been working there) so she can't make mistakes and there's no way she would tell you that raising will only be for the text.'

After disputing for about ten minutes I decided not to waste my time with her anymore. I was going to print another client's cards there but I told her that I'm not taking any more risks with them and that Office Depot should properly train its employees.

Throughout the dispute I controlled my tone because initially I didn't think it's that lady's fault because the person who helped us before took the orders and misinformed us. However, the second lady did raise her voice with me and she seemed to be more agitated as if she's the one losing money on this and not me.

So here's my message to Office Depot:

1 - Train your employees to smile. It doesn't take too much effort.

2 - Tell them the number one rule of customer service : The customer is always right (unless proven wrong)

3 - Tell the customers exactly what they will be getting

4 - Write down all the specifications that the customer agrees on

5 - Print name of the sales associate who takes the orders

I will never go to Office Depot for my printing needs unless I don't have any other alternative then I'll be very specific about my requirement regardless if it seems like they know what they are doing.